How to Use Your Blog to Leverage Social Proof and Increase Your Authority

Have you ever wanted your readers to take more notice of what you have to say?

You’re not alone.

And have you ever wanted other bloggers, journalists and writers to reference you as an expert in top publications on the web?

Countless others have done this and you can too.

But HOW?

The answer is social proof.

With social proof comes authority, and all the benefits that it has to offer.

And authority is an awesome thing to have because most of us are inclined to trust authority figures implicitly.

In this post you will learn exactly what this social proof thing is, how to avoid negative social proof, and the specific steps you can take to leverage positive social proof – starting today.

What is this social proof thing all about?

Social proof is a psychological concept which highlights how people look to those around them in order to make decisions and decide on a course of action.

This is based on the assumption that those actions are indicative of the correct course of action.

A popular example of social proof is how nightclubs limit the number of people that can come in at a time. When others walk past, it appears that the night club is more popular than it actually is.

You can use this concept on your blog and it’s easier to do than most people realise.

And there are different types of social proof that you can leverage, including a large number of email subscribers or even testimonials from industry influencers.

But, you have to be careful to avoid any negative social proof because there is the potential for social proof to hurt you, when you do it wrong (more on that in a moment).

The key to successfully leveraging social proof

Social proof can be positive or negative.

Negative social proof can have very damaging effects.

A good example would be going into a restaurant at peak time only to find that you and a few other people are the only ones there – this sends the message that nobody else enjoys going to the restaurant and usually prompts the thought of “is there something wrong with the food?”

The same can happen with your blog.

Telling people about your 165 email subscribers or drawing attention to a post of yours which has only had 15 tweets will send the wrong message to your readers.

So, if you don’t have the numbers – leave them out.

On the other hand, if you do have something to really shout about then it’s worth letting your readers know.

If you’re a WordPress user, there are plenty of plugins on the market that will allow you to create your own landing page.

Joe Fylan discusses some of the best plugins you can use in this post.

Hiring a developer is more expensive but will require less work on your part, although using a plugin to do this means you can tweak the page without having to go back to your developer.

#2 – Social share counts can be more than a vanity metric

If someone comes to your site and sees that your posts are being shared by lots of people, this acts as a very positive form of social proof.

On the flip side, it takes a few seconds to share a blog post, so if visitors see that your posts aren’t getting shared then this is where negative social proof will come in.

A rising trend is to display a total share count rather than individual share counts. A great example of this in action is Mashable:

This is really powerful for several reasons, first of all there are a lot of social shares and secondly displaying the total social shares has a higher impact than showing individual social share counts.

How to implement this yourself:

For WordPress users, there are a number of social share plugins available that will allow you to accomplish something similar (most are free), you can find a few examples here.

If you don’t use WordPress, AddThis have several solutions available. Aside from the free options, the most effective would be the “Jumbo Share Counter” however this requires a monthly payment.

#3 – Use your sidebar to create a positive first impression

Take a look at the sidebar on your blog and ask yourself this:

“Does everything in my sidebar really need to be here?”

The first step to using your sidebar to create a positive first impression is to remove anything that doesn’t provide a function or doesn’t help you achieve your goals.

What should you consider removing?

The answer is; it depends on your goals but there are a number of things to consider:

Adverts – If your site relies on adverts, keeping them is a must, but you have to ask yourself whether the money you receive is worth sending visitors away. If ads aren’t performing, remove them.

Badges – If you have badges that mention article directories or web directories, these provide no benefit and just serve as a distraction. On the other hand, if you have won an award that would be difficult for other bloggers to attain, that is a keeper.

Facebook like boxes – I’m personally not a fan of these, but if you have a large following they can provide a significant level of social proof. Also Facebook displays pictures of your friends who are also fans which can be very powerful.

Twitter widgets – Again, if you have a large following these can be worth including but if you don’t, they are worth removing.

Blog rolls – These will only distract your readers from your content and send them away from your blog.

Drop them an email and invite them to contribute – this is the most challenging step of all, you have to highlight the benefits while avoiding any negative social proof. This post by Kristi Hines includes a good selection of resources to get you started.

Over to you

When you do this right, you will eventually get to the point where your blog acts as its own social proof.

Your authority will increase and opportunities will appear, as if by magic.

And the biggest sign that things are moving in direction is when other bloggers start using your logo as an element of social proof.

What are you doing to leverage social proof on your blog?

I’d love to hear more in the comments below.

About the author: Adam Connell is the Founder of Blogging Wizard and spends most of his time helping bloggers to increase their traffic and email subscribers. If you want to blog smarter and not harder, download his free guide and learn how you can leverage the influencers of others to climb to the top.

About Guest Blogger

This post was written by a guest contributor. Please see their details in the post above.

Congrats! Great to see you on problogger. This post was spot on because each screen share indicates a different way to tap into social proof. Even the least likely to be swayed person raises their eyebrows at some of these numbers.

You also gave me a great idea through Derrick’s Social Trigger’s Chris Brogan endorsement. May be time to put mine in the sidebar.

The thing is, we’re more likely to act on advice by trusting a source and social proof can accelerate that trusting process. I recall visiting Tony Robbin’s site for the first time the other day. He lists like 5 big name superstars, people like Andre Agassi, and Serena Williams, offering their testimonials.

When you’ve helped the best in the world at their craft improve themselves you’re gonna gain almost everybody’s trust. Quickly.

How do you gain social proof? Work like heck, intelligently, to hone your skills and of course connect with authority bloggers and other folks in your niche to boost your numbers and to receive hearty testimonials.

I received a testimonial from Chris Brogan for my new eBook after commenting on his blog for months – back when he had the comments section open – a few years ago. I planted the relationship seed then and popped up on his radar.

We usually chat via email after his latest newsletter. These nice little bonds, and seemingly tiny acts, set the stage for me receiving some awesome social proof.

Adam, this post was sensational. As you explained so well, studying the pros and learning from the best can give you ideas into how you can work social proof into your blog, which of course instantly boosts your authority.

I have always been aware of social proof and even still it effects you. When I go to a blog and I see no shares when they have a share counter, it instinctually tells me something is wrong, even if it may not be. I think these are valuable tips. I liked the subscriber counters that includes all of the subscribers. What is a good number for that? I am around 10k right now in less than 3 months, but I feel like waiting until I am at 50k or 100k is best.

It depends. Some display their amount no matter how low while some of the people who have been around for years have over 50k to 100k. Yeah I try not to focus too much on my stats or else I get sad because no matter what it will never be enough haha. I am just trying to be grateful to write a blog.

Because of this article I have replaced my social media share plugin on posts to one that just shows the total shares and not individual. Looks much better! Am trying to read as much about all this as I can, so thanks for the great advice!

There’s a few good writing and blogging sites in those images above DrewryNewsNetwork never heard of before. May possible mention this post from ProBlogger and link to it in the near future. This is good stuff. :-)

Thanks so much for the specific examples and links. Lots of great tips to look into. I’m really interested in the total share plugins and also the guest blogging concept. I’ve been meaning to dig into that kind of thing for the longest time just didn’t know where to get started. All this seems overwhelming at times, but having this information and taking a few suggestions at a time helps a lot.

Social proof is one of the important fundamentals to improve or leverage your authority, and no wonder that blog could help, and also known as informational social influence is simply a positive influence created when someone finds out your actions.

On Noah’s example on number one’s “Your home page is an opportunity that shouldn’t be wasted” obvious it is creaming that Noah knows what he is doing and like him, we should be like that, who knows what we are doing. While “How to implement this yourself” reveals ideas.

I found this post shared on Kingged.com, the Internet marketing social bookmarking and networking site, and I “kingged” it and left this comment.

So, I’m browsing ProBlogger for the first time in a week and a half (I’m still behind on my blog reading after writing that 8,317-word post!) and what do I find? My friend Adam has written a guest post!

First off, congratulations! I know you’ve written here before, but anytime someone gets to write for ProBlogger it’s a big deal and deserves a kudos.

Secondly, very informative post. Well done.

I’ve given some thought to turning Be A Better Blogger’s homepage into a landing page. I know Blogging Wizard does this, as does VideoFruit, Traffic Generation Cafe, and several other blogs I read. Your post gives me more to consider on the subject. I really AM missing a golden opportunity, it would seem…

Hey Adam – just spotted my home page up there. There’s no I don’t know the right emoticon keys for blusing – but take it from me I am :)

Just to let folks know what tech I’ve used for this. The page design is a tweaked version of the LeadPages Social Proof Giveaway page with the “trust panel” of publications moved down, a big button to go to the blog added, and a big footer with more content to keep google happy and share more about me and my stuff.

I originally coded it up in Thesis 2 – took me ages. More recently I switched over to using the Epik theme on my site generally so I used the Optimizepress plugin to create the home page and it took less than an hour. Nice!